The Last 5 Minutes

The Last 5 Minutes...

I was out with the mission teams when a drunk man stumbled up and asked me to be his girlfriend. Our conversation went something like this: “Sorry Baba!” to which he replied, “OK, maybe next time or later” and I happily said, “No, never” and off he went. I can normally shoo the drunk guys away with my abruptness (or better yet, Micah is with us and guides them away) but this wasn't the case with the next fellow, Oscar.

Oscar rambled up next, he was completely sober and spoke excellent English. He asked to take a picture with me to which I said, “No!” and told him he could speak to one of the guy missionaries who was conversing with another man a few paces away. Oscar was not so easily persuaded and I told him I didn't like pictures. Undaunted he started to ask me if I knew a few missionaries and named some off, I didn't know them but I found out that he had attended Micah's discipleship group and remembered the teaching. Come to find out, he actually knew his Bible very well. I eventually realized Oscar would not be coaxed to go away and he seemed a bit smug thinking he was getting somewhere by holding my attention, but I was just as stubborn as he and decided if he wanted to talk we would talk about God!

He told me he had learned this analogy from a teaching: life is like a 90 minute soccer game, and we are playing in the last 5 minutes of overtime, we don't know when the game is going to end (when Jesus is going to come back). I asked him what he was doing with his last 5 minuets and he took three steps backwards saying that was a tough question but that he was searching for the truth. We talked about how the Bible is the truth, but I sensed he was running everywhere but to the Author of truth. So I used his analogy, “Oscar, you are in the last 5 minutes of the game, you must go to the Coach to find out the game plan … the Coach is the One with the plan! After you go to the Coach you get with the team players to discuss and put the plan into action. Oscar, God is that Coach! The team players are church and discipleship. Stop going to the team players first, you need to go to the Coach, to God!” Oscar answered matter of fact, “Yeah, I know, I know” to which I replied, “Sometimes people do know, they have gone to the Coach and yet they sit on the bench doing nothing!” Oscar heeded my words graciously, you could tell they hit him to the core and had his thinker ticking. We were interrupted by a drunk old man who was wandering through but I was still able to pull one of the missionaries and we prayed over Oscar together.

I hope Oscar goes to the Coach and gets with the team players! I hope he allows God to use him as an influential player for the Gospel in Kya Sands squatter camp. In the end Oscar wanted a picture with me still so he could “remember my face to pray for me”. I told him he didn't need a picture to pray for someone and for once he was speechless and we parted ways on good terms. I thank God for making the most of ever opportunity, for stretching me to speak with Oscar and for the brilliant ways He brings the gospel into the fibers of every conversation.